Swiss Army Applications

Why is it that precious few "productivity tools" actually make me more productive?

I think it's because productivity tools are designed to make their designer more productive, not me.

And I think that explains the rising adoption of applications like widgets and gadgets - snippets of single purpose code which can be assembled on a desktop to address small specific needs - as an alternative to a "full featured" office productivity suite.

You pick and choose just what you need and ignore the rest.

Maybe that's why I never owned a Swiss Army knife. I didn't like the idea of always carrying all the tools around, whether you'd ever need them or not. I could I never get one to open up and I didn't know what half the tools were for!